A Long Time Ago - Battles of the Past
by pika318
Summary: Stories about some of the battles fought in the Demon World. Inspired by Vol 0
1. Satan vs Alsiel

**Moko-Chan** : Hi again! A new fanfic revolving mostly around our dear demons when they were still in the Demon World. So far I only thought of two chapters.

The first will be the time when Satan was going to recruit Alsiel into the army. Though I have not read Vol 0 for a while, I remember that the terms was that Alsiel and his entire army of warriors will join as long as Satan beats Alsiel in a one-on-one fight. The second will be a fight between Alsiel and Lucifer.

I'm not very good at writing battle scenes but I will try my best.

Enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter 1** : Satan vs Alsiel

* * *

Two demons stood in the middle of a ring made up of various other demons surrounding them. One of the two demons was a creature covered in jet black armour. His long scorpion-like tail poked out from under his waist cloth, decorated in a way that was traditional of his clan for over a century. He stood with his back straight and his arms folded across his chest as he stared at his opponent.

The opponent was a large sized and muscular demon (a bit larger than the armoured demon himself) with a bare torso and goat-like legs. He had no armour and only donned cloth pants and a red tattered scarf around his neck. The only part of him that looked intimidating were the think horns on top of his head. While holding onto a sword made of ice, he started doing stretching exercises. When it seemed like he finally loosened up, he gave a smirk and held the sword in front of him and looked straight at the armoured demon.

"Any time you're ready, Alsiel."

The one called Alsiel lowered his body, his tail curling before him, and his right claw extended in front of his face. He silently waited for his opponent to strike first.

* * *

 **Just a few moments ago…**

Alsiel stared at the retreating troops belonging to a young demon known as Satan. Even Lucifer, the infamous vagrant demon of the wastelands, whom just barely escaped the clutches of death thanks to Satan's interference swallowed his rage and backed off together with Adramelech's group.

"What, you're backing down?"Alsiel growled in annoyance. Just a bit more and he would have finished off the small winged demon and the large bull headed demon.

Satan. who was more preoccupied with getting his troops to retreat, turned to face Alsiel when he heard the protest and spoke as though he just noticed him.

"Oh, that's right. I apologise, Alsiel. It's such a rare chance that you actually come up to the frontlines yourself. I actually came here to propose something. After they're done backing off, you will fight me here."

Alsiel's eyes widened as he tried to comprehend what Satan was implying. The words had a straightforward meaning, they will fight each other, but for what reason, he did not know.

"...What did you say?"

Then Satan crossed his arms and started looking upwards as though he was thinking of something. Then after a few seconds, he looked straight at Alsiel again.

"Let's see, if you win, you can kill me and at the same time, you can do anything you want with my troops. But if I win….."

Satan pointed the ice sword he was holding right at Alsiel and he declared in a booming voice.

"Clan leader of the Iron Scorpions, Alsiel, you and the warriors from your clan will belong to me."

To Alsiel, Satan's suggestion was nothing short of madness. Not only was it a one-on-one fight, the victor will become the leader of all the demons involved in this. Alsiel opened his mouth to protest but the words escaped him.

Not waiting for Alsiel to respond, Satan shrugged and said in an extremely smug tone.

"Honestly speaking, we already won this battle. But you're probably thinking that if you stubbornly resist and make some huge sacrifices, all of you might just be able to get away. You must have been thinking that, which is why you showed up here, am I right?"

Alsiel growled when he heard that. Much as he would like to deny it, the situation will not change. He understood that the only way out would probably be beating down the demon in front of him.

"I'm sure you are not willing to retreat just like that are you? So I am giving you a chance to fight back. However, once you are satisfied then you can come with me. Like this, whether it's you or your clan, no lives will be needlessly wasted."

Alsiel gritted his fangs and glared at the horned demon.

"...You think…" Alsiel spat the words out.

"That you can beat me alone?"

Satan rested the tip of his ice sword on his shoulder and replied in a relaxed manner.

"If I did not think I had any chance of victory, I would not even say those words. Well, I can't guarantee my win so it's not as though you are at a complete disadvantage. When we are fighting, I will not let any of my people have a hand in this. Once I got here, the army led by Camio had already stopped sending in reinforcements so don't worry about that."

Alsiel eyed the other demon suspiciously.

 _Can I really trust him?_

Although Satan looks capable of putting up a fight, he does not seem to possess the same overwhelming strength that Adramelech or Lucifer has.

Perhaps his abilities lay in his strategic planning and wits then.

Alsiel let out a snort and then asked Satan in a haughty tone.

"Do you really think I would believe that during our fight, none of your troops will not join in? This is the same for yourself, do you really think that the Iron Scorpions would cooperate with your farce?"

"Oh….only someone with the leadership to lead the people here would think of such a thing. Anyway, if any side dares to cheat then we'll just battle it out the traditional demon way, one army against another. That shouldn't be a problem should it? It's just as per normal."

"..."

Alsiel's expression became stern again. Even if the situation turn disadvantageous, it would be no different from normal so what in the world was he worrying about?

"Well, in the end, the current demon world is different from the old demon world."

"However, if you and I follow the pact of the having a one-on-one battle, the number of us who will survive will increase and a larger, no, an even more massive group would be born."

Suddenly, Alsiel had a flash of a scene. All the demons in this red world at their feet, and the one leading this group was….

Alsiel shook his head.

 _What am I thinking?_

"...Watch your words." Alsiel said in a threatening tone.

"Hm?" Satan tilted his head trying to make sense of what the armoured demon just said.

"A large group will only be born if you win. I have no intention of having any other subordinates other than my own. It's far too early for you to believe that you will triumph."

"...Ah, you realised it." Satan laughed with a guilty expression.

"Well, if you do win, it's not that much trouble to take in the subordinates I trained. Nevermind, it would be tough for you to organise them but that's up to your leadership capacity eh?"

"Hmph."

Alsiel smirked at Satan's suggestion.

"Fine, I accept your deal. A one-on-one fight."

"Oh! That's great!"

"However!"

Alsiel glared at Satan who was looking joyful.

"I am Alsiel, the proud leader of the Iron Scorpion clan! My dictatorship has no need for the hands of other demons! Before I truly declare my victory, no matter how long it takes, I will destroy everything you left behind."

"...Man, you are stubborn. Well, that makes you worth recruiting."

At that moment, the attentions of all the fighters in the area were focused on the two.

The battle between the young demon of a weak clan and the leader of one of the strongest clans in the wastelands.

* * *

"That reckless brat…."

Camio, an aged bird demon who had accompanied and mentored Satan since he was young, muttered under his breath.

He had no doubt that Satan was strong, at the very least, stronger than most of the demons in his current army but no matter what, Alsiel was still the leader of one of the most powerful clans in the wasteland. Not only were the defences of the Iron Scorpion clan legendary, they also possessed phenomenal telekinesis powers which made it difficult for any opponents to get near them. At least Satan removed one of the Iron Scorpion's advantages in this fight, that being their strength in numbers.

"But what in the world can you do to break that kind of defence?"

At that moment, Camio heard the light fluttering of wings and turned to the direction of the sound.

"You alright there, Lucifer?"

The petite human-like demon donning a heavy coat had landed next to Camio. He folded his jet-black wings tightly behind his back and looked at the fight between Satan and the leader of the Iron Scorpions. Glancing at Camio, he replied.

"Of course I'm fine!" Lucifer snapped.

"Really? You took quite a few heavy blows back there." Camio said, some suspicion in his voice.

"Stupid armoured bastard. I'll get him back for this…." Lucifer grumbled.

The battle between the two started and Lucifer followed Satan's movements as the horned demon dashed towards Alsiel and swung his sword towards Alsiel's head. With one swift movement, Alsiel waved his arm and Satan was thrown backwards onto his behind.

"That telekinesis power is troublesome." Lucifer commented.

"Indeed it is. It almost makes the Iron Scorpions unstoppable. Not only is it difficult to get close to them, once you do, you still have to figure out how to break that armour of theirs. And so far, the only one who has the capability of even damaging their armour is you." Camio said calmly.

"You make it sound like Satan has no chance of winning."

"I'm just analysing the situation. Well, that brat has surprised us many times so he might just win. Of course, I do hope he wins. If Satan dies, no doubt most of us will get wiped out by Alsiel."

"That won't happen."

"That's quite some confiden…." Camio raised an eyebrow in surprise. Many a times, Lucifer had mocked Satan so for him to show such faith in Satan was quite unusual.

"Because if Satan loses, I'll tear him apart and then kill that armoured bastard myself."

"I take that back." Camio gave a wry smile and then continued observing the battle.

* * *

 _What is this bastard hiding? All the attacks he made so far are nothing short of predictable._

Alsiel had been very cautious throughout the entire battle, making sure that he does not use any large movements or overwhelming power at one go. But as the fight went on for a few minutes, he was starting to wonder if the words spouted by Satan were just empty words.

Satan had attacked him with basic sword techniques, poking, slicing and swinging his sword, none of which that Alsiel could not fend off.

 _Maybe he's really just a fool from a weak clan after all._

Though he had not heard much of the Black goat clan, at the very least, he was aware that that clan were not especially large or strong, nor were they exceptionally skilled in magic.

Alsiel scanned the area, shooting glances at Adramelech who just stood nearby with his arms crossed and watching the fight.

 _Is he planning let Adramelech spring a surprise attack or…_

Alsiel's eyes darted around the blood red sky. However he could not spot Lucifer.

 _Is he planning for Lucifer to shoot me from a distance?_

He knows that the small winged demon was the only one who had enough power to damage his armour.

"Hey, hey…"

Alsiel's attention snapped back to the fight and just in time as the ice sword came down at his head.

 _Shit!_

Alsiel quickly raised his arm and blocked off the attack. The ice sword came into contact with his claw. Alsiel grabbed the sword and with a swing, he threw both the sword and Satan a distance away. Satan landed on his feet and with a smirk, he said to Alsiel.

"You should be paying attention to the opponent in front of you."

"Hmph, I don't pay attention to weaklings."

"Oh, and I managed to get close to you for the first time you know?"

Alsiel laughed and said mockingly.

"And what did that do? It's not as though your sword can damage my armour."

Satan smiled confidently and used his index finger to point at the claw which Alsiel used to block off the previous attack.

Just as Alsiel looked down at his right claw, a sharp pain shot through his wrist and lower arm.

"You bastard…." Alsiel growled. Small icicles had formed under the hard scales of his wrist and arm forcing them to pull apart from his skin. Drops of blood started to ooze out.

"Adramelech was right. We thought only heat magic could get to you but it seems like if we can peel that armour from you somehow...it'll work as well."

 _Then I just have to keep you away from me!_

"Urk!"

Satan let out a grunt as he was suddenly lifted a few feet off the ground.

"I tire of this. Farewell, Satan."

With his telekinesis power, Alsiel start applying pressure on the horned demon's body.

"Heh…"

"What are you laughing about?"

Satan just lifted an arm and pointed behind Alsiel. Alsiel wheeled around only to see a small purple glowing orb. He quickly released the telekinesis he had on Satan but a beam shot out of the orb before he could jump out of the way. He felt the heat of the beam on his armour however….

 _It didn't pierce through? No way, Lucifer's one should be able to…_

A strong blow hit his back. Alsiel stumbled forward and just like what happened on his arm, first he felt the cold of the ice and then the warmth of his own blood seeping through his shell.

"You thought that was Lucifer's attack? Sorry, that was mine. Well, I can't make my heat beam as strong as his yet but that sure fooled ya, didn't it?"

Satan's gloating voice was heard from behind him.

"Rarrghhhh!"

Alsiel let out a yell and he swung his scorpion like tail at the opponent but it hit nothing. He turned again and saw no one standing on the ground.

Instead, there was someone in the air. And that someone dropped at a very fast speed, sending an ice sword at his head. Alsiel dodged to the side and the ice sword hit his shoulder. Alsiel gritted his teeth as the pain seared through his back and shoulder.

 _No way. He can fly as well?!_

The one in the air was Satan. Alsiel had expected that the demon with bat wings would be flightless because no matter what it looked like, he just didn't seemed built for flying, unlike the members of the Pahalo clan.

"Lucifer doesn't seem built for flying either but he taught me how to overcome that."

Now Satan was behind him again.

He turned again, only to catch a blow from the ice sword. Now Satan was attacking at a faster speed, not allowing Alsiel to even focus for a second to execute his telekinesis. Blow after blow followed and more blood started to flow through the armour. The ice was also making it more difficult for Alsiel and he was also starting to feel lightheaded from the excruciating pain.

"And lastly, Camio told me, as long as you can't fight back, victory is mine."

That was the last thing Alsiel remembered hearing.

* * *

Alsiel only passed out for a few seconds. When the fogginess faded from his head, he realised that he had truly and completely lost.

Satan was over him while he lay on the ground.

 _I'm going to die._

That was what Alsiel instinctively thought. In this crimson world, only victors lived.

"Well, I won. So from now on, the Iron Scorpion clan and clan leader Alsiel will be part of my "Demon Army"."

"What…did you say?" Alsiel mumbled in disbelief as he slowly stood up.

"Huh, don't tell me you forgot my conditions? Even if you don't have as much wits as Camio, I know you can think. Do you want to come with us and bring the name of the Iron Scorpions to higher levels? Let's create a world where even the most ignorant if demons would be in awe upon hearing your name."

Satan painted out an optimistic future but Alsiel still could not picture himself lowering his head in front of a younger demon. He did not want to do something so humiliating.

"How could I agree to such a thing…."

Alsiel muttered and then he caught Satan looking at him with a very cold gaze. With an equally cold and cruel tone, Satan warned him,

"If you don't want to join me, it's fine. But if you die here meaninglessly, I'm not going to let off the survivors of your clan either."

A chill ran down Alsiel's spine as Satan said that.

"As long as you live, the rest of the Iron Scorpions can survive as well. But if you die here, they will be killed with you. Choose. Is the leader of this proud clan someone who is willing to sacrifice his men for the sake of his name?"

Pride or survival.

Alsiel never thought there was anything more important than pride. His clan was a clan of warriors. Each generation had been thought to die for the sake of this clan. But now someone was offering him an option which had never crossed his mind before.

"Lord Alsiel, we can beat them! We can beat them!"

One of the shamans from Alsiel's clan started chanting. The rest joined in.

Satan's own army started riling up. The weapons which were held at a neutral position beside them were raised. Satan, however, did not move. He just stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest and he raised an eyebrow as though waiting for Alsiel to make his decision.

"Lord Alsiel, we will fight!"

"Hey, your call. If you want to fight, we can do it right here and now. Or we can end this and no one gets hurt." Satan said casually.

"We…."

"Lord Alsiel!"

Then Alsiel raised his arm. His clan fell silent. There was a brief moment of silence and then Alsiel lowered himself to his knees.

"We will pledge our loyalty to you, Lord Satan."

Alsiel said the deciding words with his head bowed. Without any further signs to his clan, his clan members bowed down as well. Satan's army cheered.

"Alright! Let's go then!"

Satan turned and started to walk off.

"Hey, you coming with me?"

"What?" Alsiel asked in surprise.

"You're part of my army now. Let's go. We have some plans to make."

And thus the Iron Scorpions became part of Satan Jacob's Demon Army.

* * *

 **Moko-chan** : I'm soooo done. Now to write the next chapter.

 **pika318** : Moko-chan interrupted me when I was translating volume 11 to beta read this…for someone who doesn't write battle scenes often, it was really good, so write more. By the way, some parts of the fic (not the battle scene) were taken directly from Volume 0. As usual, we appreciate reviews.


	2. Alsiel vs Lucifer

**Moko-chan** : So here we are with Chapter 2, Alsiel vs Lucifer. I wasn't thinking too much about further chapters but writing about the Malebranches seems like a pretty good idea. I might do a Camio vs Lucifer too if I can think about how it would turn out.

May sound a bit OOC but let's just try to remember that Alsiel was an arrogant barbarian before he mellowed out after being in Satan's army for a while.

This will be the perfect example of the Chinese proverb "不打不相识". If you don't fight, you won't know each other.

Enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter 2:** Alsiel vs Lucifer

* * *

"As I was saying…."

"..."

"I don't wish to repeat this till my mouth is dry…."

"..."

"No matter how much you dislike it, Alsiel is part of our army..."

"..."

"So for the sake of Satan and the rest of us, get along with him! Make him feel welcome or he might turn tail on us anytime!"

"Ahhhh! I get it! I get it! You stupid old fart! Who the hell has been tattling on me anyway?!"

The above was the long winded lecture from Camio, the first member of Satan's army to Lucifer, the second member of Satan's army.

Camio shook his head at Lucifer's outburst.

"No one. It's obvious that you've been avoiding any place that Alsiel is at." Camio replied disapprovingly.

"Hmph." Lucifer turned away, not looking at Camio.

"It's not doing well for our morale."

"Like I give a damn."

Camio gave a long sigh and that annoyed Lucifer even more.

"Well, if you insist on acting like a little brat, then we have no choice but to treat you like one…."

But what irritated Lucifer the most was being treated like a child despite the fact that he was older than any of the other members in Satan's army, including Camio who was considered ancient even to the other long lived demons.

"Alright! I get it! But don't expect me to get along with that armoured bastard."

And after a second outburst, Lucifer stormed off.

* * *

It was the middle of the night. Most of the demons have hidden themselves in makeshift tents or even dug out some holes or caves as their shelter to rest.

Alsiel stood alone in an area that had plenty of boulders, stones and withered trees around. It had been a few days since his loss to Satan and his entire clan having to pledge their loyalty to the young demon from the Black Goat clan.

Although the physical wounds from that fight had healed up quickly, there was still the feeling of frustration from having been defeated in such an overwhelming manner.

He raised one claw and one of the boulders lifted gently into the air, surrounded by a faint green glow.

 _If I actually went on the offensive…_

Alsiel flicked his wrist backward and sent the boulder flying at himself. With a swing of his arm he brought the boulder to the ground, his claws dug out sections of the boulder, causing it to have slash marks on it.

 _If I did not solely depend on defense, would I have won?_

Alsiel visualised an image of himself tearing Satan's chest open with his claws and he was the one who was left the victor, the one standing at the front of the Demon World.

 _A loss is a loss. If Satan does not prove that he's worthy, I will end his life._

Alsiel sighed softly to himself. One part of him had totally given up on finding ways to fight back against the decision but yet another part of him was plotting ways of assassination.

That was when he spotted a familiar small demon coming towards his direction. The other party seemed to have caught sight of him and froze.

Lucifer had wanted to go to a quiet place to be left alone to his own thoughts so he decided to go to a spot which he knew was quite a distance from where camp was set up. Most demons from Satan's army did not dare to wander there as it was too far from the camp to guarantee their safety.

It was an area that was littered with withering trees, boulders and stones.

And it seemed like someone else was there first. Lucifer only noticed because he heard a loud crash.

 _Crap, why him of all people?!_

* * *

Alsiel watched as Lucifer seemed to be hesitating between walking away or holding his ground. He had noticed that the winged demon had been avoiding him on purpose. Not that he cared much about it, he was not looking forward to being familiar with Lucifer anyway.

In the end, it seemed that Lucifer decided not to turn in the other direction. Instead he walked closer in a very casual manner and asked:

"What are you doing?"

Alsiel looked at Lucifer's face for a few seconds and then answered,

"Nothing of your concern."

"What?! Hey, I'm actually trying to be friendly here!" Lucifer protested angrily.

"Why? Because someone else told you to be? Make your own decisions, vagrant demon." Alsiel said coldly before he turned, planning to increase his distance from the winged demon. Even though he only conversed with Lucifer once or twice prior to being recruited into Satan's army, he knew Lucifer would not do things like "trying to have conversations with others" or "being friendly to others" because he wanted to. It was probably Satan or Camio who told him to do such things.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I won't disturb you since you are so preoccupied with moping over your loss!"

Alsiel stopped moving. Without turning around to face the other person, he asked in a low threatening tone,

"What did you just say?"

"You are moping over your loss to Satan, aren't you?" Lucifer taunted.

"As expected. You were so confident that you were one of the strongest demons around yet you got trashed so quickly."

Alsiel could have sworn the other demon was laughing when he said that. He spun around and at the same time, he sent a large sizable piece of granite flying at Lucifer. As though Lucifer had expected it, he jumped sideways, dodging the object.

"That was clo-"

Just as Lucifer was about to express his words of relief to mock the armoured demon even further, he noticed something and quickly took off upwards.

And it was just at the right moment. Had Lucifer been a second slower, Alsiel's claws would have came into contact with him. Lucifer felt a bead of sweat flowing down the side of his face.

"Aren't you impatient?" Lucifer commented loudly as he looked down at Alsiel who was glaring straight up at him.

Alsiel smirked.

"Since Satan interrupted our battle the last time, we might as well finish it today, vagrant demon."

"You think you can defeat me without your little minions?"

"I can."

* * *

An uneasy feeling.

That was the feeling that Satan had been having since a few minutes. There was no explanation for it. Even if he had not observed any unusual signs happening around the camp set up by his army, he kept having this feeling at the pit of his stomach that something bad was happening or would soon happen.

"Satan, if you are tired, we can cease the discussion."

Satan snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Adramelech who spoke.

"Oh, no, no. I'm fine. I'm just thinking about what to do about the Malebranches. I heard from Camio that they're a rather strong group." Satan said, thinking that the cause of his worry could have been something else.

"They're not just strong...The frightening part is that no one has any idea how they actually fight. Yet there are rumors that they are as strong as the Ancient Demon King's army." Adramelech commented.

"Maybe they spread the rumors themselves." Satan said, smiling bitterly.

"Perhaps. But regardless, we will have to face them eventually."

"I wonder if we're strong enough."

"With the Iron Scorpions and my clan, the Ashen horns, I would say we can match up to them." Adramelech said proudly. Then looking straight at Satan, he added on.

"Not to mention, we have a great leader."

"Haha, you flatter me." Satan laughed gently at that comment. Then as he continued looking at the map that was drawn based on the information they had so far, they heard a voice from the entrance of the makeshift tent.

"Lord Satan, I think we have trouble." It was one of Camio's people, a young warrior from the Pahalo Danino clan.

Satan gulped. Could that have been the cause of his unease?

"What kind of trouble?" Satan asked, hiding his nervousness.

"The leader of the Iron Scorpion clan, Alsiel and Lucifer are fighting."

"Whattttttt?!"

* * *

Alsiel understood that Lucifer had the advantage of speed and was able to blast a hole through his armour without much trouble. However, once Lucifer was in the air, the accuracy and power of his heat beams will be lowered. Furthermore, if Lucifer was immobilised, he would become an easy target.

The problem was, his own telekinesis would not work very well on fast moving targets. But he knew that as long as he had a single chance to bring the winged demon to the ground, victory was almost as good as his.

Lucifer seemed to have realised this as well and was hovering around in the sky and shooting from a distance. Most of the shots have missed or at best, grazed his opponent. He was also more careful and focused on dodging the rocks and debris thrown at him because he knew from past experience that if any one of those things hit his wings, he would be going down.

 _There's no way he can can fly up here, but I can't hit him either!_

Lucifer gritted his teeth as he missed yet another shot. Just then he noticed a faint green glow around Alsiel. If he had not been paying attention, he might have thought it was a trick of his eyes.

 _Don't tell me…._

Lucifer had always expected opponents like Adramelech and Alsiel to keep to the ground. Even if they wanted to have some power in the sky, they would have to take the trouble to learn how to fly like Satan did. Well, it was not that difficult for Satan because he had wings but it would probably be impossible for the wingless Alsiel.

Or so he thought.

"No way!" Lucifer blurted out as Alsiel used telekinesis on himself. Alsiel flew into the air at high speed right into Lucifer's path. Before Lucifer could even react to the unexpected situation, the larger demon grabbed him by the front of his coat and released his telekinesis. With that, gravity took over and Alsiel went towards the ground pulling Lucifer along with him. Just as he landed on his feet, he bent his knees to absorb the force of the impact. Lucifer was not that lucky. Because he was dragged along, he had no time to get into a proper landing position and then he got mercilessly thrown onto the dirt ground upon landing.

"Urk!"

Lucifer let out a grunt once he landed on his back. He quickly attempted to roll out of the way and then he felt a pressure on his left wing. Turning his head to the left side, he saw Alsiel stepping on it.

Lucifer's face immediately paled as Alsiel bent over with his left claw raised.

"!"

The claw went through his wing, ripping through the feathers and flesh. At the same time Lucifer let out a scream, multiple purple orbs appeared and beams shot out from them. Alsiel backed up and dodged most of them. Some of them hit, burning through parts of his armor.

Lucifer took that chance to get up and increase his distance from Alsiel.

Alsiel examined the damage on himself. Parts of his shell were singed or completely burnt off. His right upper arm was bleeding from the sudden attack. However, he smiled confidently. His opponent was worse off them he was.

"Ready to surrender? I was already being merciful by not ripping your wings right off your back. But with this kind of damage, I doubt you can fly." Alsiel said while looking at Lucifer who was only a few metres away.

Lucifer did not reply to the taunting request. He just slowly folded both his wings behind his back. As his head was lowered, Alsiel could not tell what kind of expression he was making. Alsiel dropped the confident smile and took on a defensive position.

 _Now that he's on the ground, he can only use his heat beams…._

Alsiel was sure that he would be able to spot or at least feel the magic orbs if they appeared nearby. Furthermore with the injuries that Lucifer has, it was going to be difficult to focus to manifest those orbs.

 _If he tries to attack, I can stop him easily…_

And that was when Alsiel realised that the impression he had about Lucifer's abilities was mistaken.

Something black suddenly flew close to Alsiel's face and obscured his vision. Instinctively, Alsiel grabbed the obstruction and pulled it away from himself. And he noticed that it was a heavy black coat.

 _His coat?! For what…_

Alsiel's eyes went towards the sky thinking that Lucifer had escaped into the air during the distraction but with the injury he inflicted, it had to be difficult to fly and then he looked down. The smaller demon was right in front of him.

"Wha…?!"

Lucifer's left palm came into contact with the bottom of Alsiel's jaw causing his head jerked upwards. Alsiel's head hurt from the impact and just as he was trying to figure out what just happened, he received a punch in the stomach. He managed to catch sight of Lucifer pulling his fist back and noticed that he had broken the skin on his knuckles.

The next moment, Lucifer jumped up and kicked Alsiel's neck using his shin and knocked the larger demon onto the ground.

"Guh!"

Alsiel braced himself on the ground using his hands and knees, still feeling giddy from the blows. Despite that, he knew that Lucifer was standing nearby and he swung his tail in the direction he believed Lucifer was in and the feeling of his tail coming into contact with something and the thud that followed afterwards told him that he was right.

Alsiel quickly got up to a standing position and turned to face his opponent. Lucifer was clutching his side as blood flowed from the lacerations caused by Alsiel's tail. The sleeveless tank top he was wearing underneath his black coat was torn and his white pants were slowing getting dyed red from the blood.

* * *

"This is bad! Oh, this is going to be so bad!" Satan started rambling to himself as he and Adramelech jogged towards the area where Alsiel and Lucifer were supposed to be at. Camio's subordinate was leading the way.

Once Satan managed to catch sight of both of them, he suddenly stopped.

"Woah, Lucifer could really fight like that?"

He gasped in awe as he saw Lucifer knock Alsiel to the ground with a kick.

"Satan! Now is not the time for admiration!" Adramelech shouted while continuing the path to the two brawling demons.

"Right!"

* * *

Perhaps it would be had been logical to end the fight before either of them hurt each other even further. But right now, the battle had ceased to be one to prove who was more superior and had become one of survival instead.

Alsiel glanced upward as he felt a radiation of warmth from above him. A large purple magic orb had formed in the space above their heads between the both of them. Lucifer's face was illuminated by the light emitting from the orb and Alsiel saw a extremely cold expression.

The armored demon demon raised his arm and a force squeezed Lucifer's throat. The magic orb dissipated for a second before reforming.

 _That wasn't enough to stop him?_

Either Alsiel was going to crush Lucifer's throat or Lucifer was going to burn Alsiel to death first.

Then Alsiel caught sight of a large figure behind Lucifer.

"Eh?"

Alsiel released his telekinesis, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone else. Almost immediately after that, the large figure closed one large hand around Lucifer and the small demon let out a yelp. The purple magic orb wobbled and vanished.

"What the?! Adramelech?! What are you doing?!" Lucifer started protesting when he turned his head and saw the massive bull demon from the Ashen Horn clan. Adramelech ignored the protests and lifted Lucifer clear off the ground.

"Okay, enough fighting."

Alsiel felt something cold on his neck and glancing from the corner of his eye, he saw that Satan was right behind him, his ice sword placed right next to Alsiel's throat.

"Well, I did hear of the phrase that you won't know each other if you didn't fight but I don't appreciate it if you both killed each other off."

"Let go! Ow ow ow ow!" Lucifer started shouting as he tried to wriggle his way out of Adramelech's grasp and then he felt Adramelech's rough skin rub against the wound on his side started crying in pain.

"No." Adramelech replied simply.

"Adramelech, just bring Lucifer back to camp. He's bleeding." Satan said with a sigh.

"Alright. Let's go." Adramelech gave a nod and walked towards the direction of the camp, still holding onto Lucifer like he was a small bird. On the way, Adramelech bent over and picked up Lucifer's black coat.

"I can walk! I can walk damn you! That bastard started it first…!"

The protests grew fainter as Adramelech walked further away.

Both Satan and Alsiel watched in silence.

"Sigh~~~~~~ You need to be treated as well…." Satan let out another long sigh and bowed his head as he saw that Alsiel was bleeding too.

"...in any case, I'm not going to apologise for that." Alsiel commented.

"I don't expect you to….Look, I know both of you have some kind of mutual hatred for each other but you are both important to my army so please get along. At the very least, don't kill each other."

"..."

"Okay, nevermind. Anyway…." Satan made his ice sword disappear and then continued in a slightly more light-hearted tone.

"You really are strong. I have never seen Lucifer fight so seriously before."

"?"

"Treat it as a compliment. Now go get yourself treated." Satan gently patted Alsiel on the shoulder and then walked back ahead of him to their camp.

After this fight, Lucifer and Alsiel still held a dislike for each other but a few decades changed that.

* * *

 **Moko-chan** : Lucifer's not weak but from the light novel, it seems like Alsiel is stronger than Lucifer especially in a group fight. But it is just one-on-one, they are almost on par with each other with Alsiel having a slight advantage.

Anyway, in Vol 0, Camio told Satan that Lucifer was skilled at unarmed combat but it was never described in detail. And guess what, in Vol 15, it was revealed that Sataniel (his dad) was skilled at unarmed combat too...even more so than Gabriel who we know is one beefed up guy.

In the novel/anime, I realised that Alsiel could float/fly….I'm assuming he can't do so for a long duration or else….they would really make Lucifer quite pathetic right? The one with advantage of flight should be him. So yeah, I just kinda imagined that Alsiel was flying with telekinesis.

 **pika318:** It's just me being biased, but I liked this fight much better because Lucifer acts cool here. Not to mention Alsiel being cruel is such a big gap from how he acts in Japan that I actually think it's a breath of fresh air.


	3. Satan's Army vs Malebranches

**Moko-chan** : Never thought that I would write this but since one of our reviewers, Senaira, suggested it and it sounded like a brilliant idea, why not?

You thought Alsiel was a douchebag? I believe the Malebranches are worse. Hehehe, let's see if I can increase the story rating of this story using this chapter.

(Other fics that I wrote are not connected to this one. So please don't point out that I contradicted myself. The newer the fic, the more factually accurate it is as more novels are published and read. By the way, this is supposed to take place, timeline wise, after the Dragon incident in Motion Sickness)

This might be the last chapter for this story. ..I guess?

* * *

 **Chapter 3:** Satan's Army vs Malebranches

* * *

"We're going to head to the South."

Satan declared that to his comrades, Camio, Lucifer, Adramelech and Alsiel.

"South? Wait, you can't be serious...You want to challenge the Malebranches?" Camio asked, his eyes widening in bewilderment.

Even Lucifer seemed surprised when Satan said that. Although Adramelech himself had expected it, since Satan had expressed his concerns about the strength of the clan in the south before, he had thought that Satan might have considered a safer course of action. The Malebranches were well known for being a massive clan with powers so strong and influential that even Alsiel did not dare to cross paths with them. Also, Malacoda, who was the leader of that clan, was rumored to be the one closest in power to the Ancient Demon King.

"Not exactly. Well, the plan was to get past them actually."

"Past them? Could you mean…." Alsiel thought back to what he remembered about the Southern region of the Demon world and only a single answer came to mind.

"That's right. Past the Malebranche's massive territory is the "Ancient Capital", Satanasarc, the place where the Ancient Demon King lived. That's our goal." Satan said while jabbing his claw at the South of the map he was using. He seemed to have scribbled the word "Target" at that location with ink.

"I don't think it's possible to just waltz past them like that." Alsiel commented.

"I know...That's my main worry. Their territory is huge and their numbers are vast as well and furthermore...we don't even know what they can do." Satan said, expressing his frustration.

"Why don't we send scouts? Send some flying demons to check them out." Adramelech suggested while glancing at Camio and Lucifer.

Lucifer did not respond to that suggestion. However, Camio shook his head.

"It'll be suicide. Instead of sending small troops that will probably be slaughtered, we might as well…" Camio did not manage to finish his sentence before Satan continued his statement.

"Face them head on?"

"I was about to suggest "find a way to sneak past them" but since we do not know the exact size of their territory, facing them head on seems to be a more logical option." Camio said.

"Yeah. So that's the plan. Brief your troops on the plan and tell them to get prepared. I hope Malacoda will be someone who can be negotiated with but I don't want to get my hopes up." Satan commanded. The other four demons nodded slightly and left to speak to their own troops.

Before Lucifer walked out, Satan called out to him.

"Hey, Lucifer. I need to speak with you for a minute."

Lucifer stopped at the entrance of the tent where they were having their meeting and watched as the other three demons left. Then he turned and asked expressionlessly.

"What is it?"

"Uh...you're not unhappy about me making you a "king", right?" Satan questioned with a forced awkward smile on his face.

Unofficially, Satan had named himself, Camio, Lucifer, Adramelech and Alsiel "kings" to watch over their subordinates.

"Since you gave me such a position, it means that you, Camio, Adramelech, armored bastard and I are of equal rank, why would I be unhappy about that?"

"You still call Alsiel armored bastard…" Satan sighed, slumping his shoulders. Even though the less than harmonious relationship between his comrades was a concern, it was not what he had planned to talk to Lucifer about. Straightening up again and looking straight at Lucifer, Satan continued speaking.

"So what are you unhappy about? Is it about going South, to Satanasarc?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You were frowning since I mentioned the word Satanasarc just now." Satan said. Aside from Camio, Lucifer was the other demon he known since he was just a small child so he was very acute when it came to detecting unusual behavior in him.

"..."

"Is there something about that place that you know about and we don't?"

"...It's too long ago. I don't remember it anymore." Lucifer said simply, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Wha...have you been there before?!" Satan asked in astonishment. It would not have been strange. Camio had mentioned that Lucifer was very old, even older than the old bird demon himself. So it might have been possible that he had been to the Ancient Demon Capital.

"Like I said. I don't remember anymore. It's not easy for someone to recall something from centuries ago, or even decades ago." Lucifer said, now sounding irritated.

"Ah...okay." Satan decided to hold back because he could sense the irritation.

"Now can I go?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"That deal still holds right?" Lucifer suddenly asked.

"What deal?" Satan asked, tilting his head as he tried to understand what Lucifer was talking about.

"If I get bored, I can leave."

"...Yeah….it still holds."

"Alright then…" With a slight nod, Lucifer left the tent. Satan was left alone in the tent. He decided to spend the next few hours thinking of possible strategies against the Malebranches, pushing the conversation he had just now to the back of his mind.

* * *

After days of preparation, the troops under Satan, now known as "Satan's Demon Army", travelled to the South with supplies of weapons, medicine, some food and water (fortunately demons did not need much of these), things for shelter as well as supplies for the dragons that were brought along.

"Hahaha, it really looks very grand!" Satan laughed excitedly as he looked down from the dragon he was on at the massive army below him. His troops were mainly made up of Alsiel's Iron Scorpion clan, Adramelech's Ashen Horn clan, warriors from Camio's Pahalo Danino clan and other clanless demons who were recruited earlier by Camio himself. Demons who were not capable of flight either trudged along on the ground or rode dragons while those which could fly flew next to the dragons.

"Satan, don't get distracted. We have already entered the Malebranche territory." Camio warned.

"Yeah. Sure. We've been lucky so far, I thought they would have welcomed us right about…." Satan responded to Camio's comment as he looked straight ahead. The area in front of him was wide open space, just a flat land with no trees or rocks or mountains in sight. Perhaps it would be a smooth journey to Satanasarc?

Then just as he thought that, lightning struck the ground ahead of them.

"Now?!" Satan pulled hard on the reins of the dragon he was on, causing it to stop and hover on the spot.

"Everyone get to the ground now!" Alsiel yelled a command to the flying demons and dragon riders behind him to land. In a well organised formation, they all started circling to the ground with Satan and Alsiel in the lead. As all of them landed safely on the ground, Lucifer and Camio who were guarding from the back made their own landing.

Satan dismounted his dragon and formed the ice sword in his hand. The other troops picked up their weapons and started to space themselves apart in a proper defensive formation in the event of an attack.

"Well, at least that answers one of our questions. The Malabraches know weather magic." Adramelech commented as he made his way to the front of the army where Satan was.

"...how troublesome." Alsiel muttered as he stood next to Adramelech and Satan.

"I don't see anyone…" Lucifer said as he flew a few feet off the ground to check the place from a higher vantage point.

"ARGH!"

"ROAR"

"YARHGH!"

Satan, Adramelech, Alsiel, Lucifer and Camio, who were at the front of the army, turned as they heard various screams of distress from the demons and dragons behind them. They quickly got out of the way as the dragons that Alsiel and Satan dismounted from started trashing.

"Heel! Heel! What's going on here?!" Satan shouted over the commotion.

"Calm yourselves!" Adramelech roared but to no avail.

The other demons continued showing forms of distress, trembling and shaking in fright as though they had seen something truly fearsome.

"Are...those bones?" Lucifer asked. There were things clawing out of the ground. White skeletal things. The bones broke through the soil and grabbed onto each and every one of the terrified troops and startled dragons.

"Necromancy..." Camio gasped. Necromancy was the magic of reanimating the dead. Satan growled furiously as he saw the bones. To him, necromancy was the worst of all magic that could be learnt as it represented disrespect to the deceased.

Now their troops and dragons could not move as they were being tied down by the bones.

As the five demons who were not tied down started to move towards their troops to try to free them, they suddenly heard a hollow voice.

"Welcome, Satan and his army."

Satan turned away from his troops and before him was a figure wearing a tattered dark blue hood and cloak. Red glowing eyes could be seen under the darkness of the hood. They could see a single skeletal tail coming out from under the cloak.

"You must be Malacoda. Wow, I'm flattered that you heard of me." Satan said, forcing a smirk across his face.

"Yes. Satan Jacob. A member of the extinct Black Goat clan, the student to the weak leader of the pathetic Pahalo Danino clan."

"You!" Camio snarled, pulling his sword of of its sheath. Satan held his hand up indicating to Camio to hold back. The demon called Malacoda continued speaking.

"After that, you and Camio recruited various vagrant demons to make up your small numbers. After managing to get the strongest clanless demon, Lucifer, you assimilated the Ashen Horns and Iron Scorpions. Truly astounding." Though the words sounded like praise, it was obvious that Malacoda was making a mockery of what Satan had worked hard in building up.

"Satan!" Lucifer suddenly alerted the horned demon. He turned and looked around only to see that all of them were surrounded by other demons, presumably from the Malebranche clan. Although those demons varied in sizes, they all had gigantic claws, a bony or skeletal look and glowing red eyes.

"When...were they there?" Satan was shocked. There was no way they could have missed out on such a large number of demons while they were travelling over.

"They could have used cloaking magic." Alsiel commented, going into a defensive position.

"Unlike my troops, your troops are just a bunch of patchwork." Malacoda laughed as he said that.

"What are your plans, Malacoda? You don't plan to stand here and mock me right?" Satan asked, pointing his sword in Malacoda's direction.

"No, of course not." From under Malacoda's cloak, a skeletal arm appeared and waved. As though there was fog clearing up, a series of tunnel entrances revealed themselves on the ground in front of Satan and the rest.

"I wish...to challenge you, Satan. As well as your troops."

"What challenge?" Satan asked cautiously. He was trying hard to fight his nervousness. He was racking his brain trying to figure out the Malebranches' abilities.

"These are the entrances to a maze that we have built underground. Select your representatives to go underground, including yourself of course. Each of you will take a different entrance." Malacoda explained. Even though his facial expression could not be seen, it was obvious from the tone of his voice that he was enjoying himself.

"And then?"

"We will see who can bring the other army's leader's head to the end."

"What?!" Adramelech roared in fury.

"This is ridiculous, we will fight!" Alsiel shouted, angry as well.

"No. This is the same as how it was with Satan and you. We stand no chance, that's why that bastard is offering us this option." Lucifer commented, glaring at Malacoda as he said that.

"Although, he's not doing this to reduce the number of casualties...he's doing this for fun." Lucifer continued.

"Ah, yes, that small demon is smart. But no matter what, I am still giving you all a fighting chance." Malacoda clapped his bony hands in a mocking manner.

Satan felt sweat dripping down the side of his face. He had expected it to be challenging but Malacoda's conditions had completely thrown him off.

"How many troops?"

"Up to five. Well, not that you have much people to choose from. Since I locked down the rest. Well, I assume that you five are the commanders since you happily took the frontlines once something went wrong." Malacoda said.

"How about you? How many troops will you send?"

"Well, if you, Satan, enter alone, then I will enter alone. If you want just three of your troops to go in, then I will send three. It's that easy. I like making my games fair."

"He lies." Camio hissed in a low voice.

"I will give you a few minutes to choose. Don't worry, I won't do anything to any of your soldiers unless you lose." Malacoda said before remaining silent, indicating he had given Satan and the rest time to do their planning.

* * *

Alsiel looked at the entrance of of one of the tunnels. Although he could not tell the exact dimensions of the inside of the cave, he could tell that it was not very large or wide. In fact, he was having concerns if Adramelech could even fit at all.

"Satan, I do not think Camio or Lucifer should go in there." Alsiel said while turning to look at Satan.

"It's totally enclosed huh? If both your flying abilities are sealed off, then I think…" Satan frowned, frustrated at his limited options.

"Do not worry about that." Camio said sternly.

"Even if we cannot fly, it is not as though we cannot run." The old demon continued.

Lucifer nodded in agreement, his expression grim.

"Besides, that bastard may send in five people, or even ten regardless of how many people you choose. It's best that all of us go in." Lucifer commented, glancing at in the direction where Malacoda was as he said that. It was true, they have no basis that Malacoda will keep to his word.

Satan let out a sigh.

"I hate having to follow another person's rules. But alright...we'll all go in.

* * *

"Well, well, I see you want to make the party as lively as possible." Malacoda said as he stood in front of one of the entrances. Next to him were four other demons, each of them standing in front of different entrances to the underground tunnels.

Those were probably the demons that were chosen by Malacoda to play this game. The one closest to Malacoda was a medium sized demon with long sharp claws, a characteristic square jaw and it also had wisps of curly hair growing from its chin. The next one was smaller in size, had a long pointy face that was decorated with two blood red diamond markings over the eye area. Following that demon with ridiculous makeup was a medium sized demon whose face was completely red and its mouth seemed to be fixed into a permanent grin. The last one was large and well built and had the face of a canine. Its jaws were half open revealing threads of drool.

"Enough small talk. Where's the exit?" Satan threw a side glance from where he was standing and he demanded in a threatening tone. Malacoda lifted a skeletal claw and pointed at the far side in front of them.

"Somewhere there! Maybe if you walked in a straight line, you'll get there, eventually." Malacoda chuckled to himself like he just made a joke. The four demons next to him laughed as well.

Satan looked at his comrades. Adramelech will enter the tunnel on his left, followed by Camio and Lucifer. Alsiel was standing at the entrance furthest away from Satan.

"I don't like this. It's obvious they know their way around in there better than we do." Adramelech muttered in a volume that only Satan could hear.

"I know. Keep your guard up. We still don't know the full extent of their abilities." Satan commented after hearing the bull headed demon's words.

"There's no time limit but only one end goal. That is, to take the head of either Satan Jacob or mine to the end. Let's begin tonight's entertainment, shall we?"

With that, Malacoda declared the start of the game and the ten demons stepped into the darkness of the caves.

* * *

The first thing that greeted Satan was the warm, rotting stench of corpses. He covered his mouth to stop himself from gagging.

"It's like a million things died in here." Satan scrunched up his forehead and started wondering how Adramelech might cope. Out of all of them, the ones with the keenest sense of smell would be Adramelech and himself.

Satan held his left arm in front of himself and a small red fireball appeared, lighting up a small area in front of him.

"Ugh...still can't see much."

Even with the light, Satan could only see barely an arm's length in front of himself.

The Black Goat clan's people usually lived above ground so they did not have very good vision in the dark as compared to clans that lived in caves such as Adramelech's clan, the Ashen Horns or Alsiel's clan, the Iron Scorpions.

Looking upwards, he could see that the ceiling was perhaps only an arm's length from his head. He probably could jump if he wanted to but things like flight would be near impossible.

With a small sigh, Satan tightened the grip on his ice sword and continued walking forward.

* * *

 _This is ridiculous…_

Alsiel frowned as he came to yet another junction.

The smell was horrible, the place was unbearably warm for an underground cave and now he was starting to wonder if he was going to get lost. Alsiel had tried to keep track of which directions he turned but he gave up after about thirteen junctions.

 _As long as I'm not going in circles._

He decided to take a right this time and he continued walking, hoping that he might encounter one of his comrades.

Just then, Alsiel stopped walking forward as he heard a sound. He pricked up his ears trying to pinpoint the direction of the noise. It was coming from somewhere behind him. Alsiel turned around immediately, his claw in an attacking position. Peering into the darkness, he focused his attention on the incoming being and to his utmost surprise, he came face to face with…

"Satan?"

A familiar horned demon.

 _Ah, I suppose the different paths we took are linked somehow._

However, despite Alsiel calling out Satan's name in surprise, the other party did not respond.

"?"

Instead, he saw the ice sword coming towards him.

"What?!"

Instinctively, Alsiel backed up and the ice sword missed him.

"Satan?! What are you do….?!" Alsiel shouted, angry and confused by the sudden assault. However, before he finished his sentence, he felt a sharp pain on his arm and his back and the warm sensation of blood seeping through torn skin.

 _What? That can't be…_

Alsiel looked down on the wrist that was supposedly injured and just as he expected, his worst fears were confirmed. Small ice fragments had started to form, pulling his dark shell away from his skin.

 _It didn't even hit me! How could it…._

That was when Alsiel noticed something. A smell.

There was a strange disgusting smell coming from around him and it was getting stronger.

 _I see...how troublesome._

As though Alsiel had just discovered something, he ignored the pain he was feeling and dashed straight at his own comrade with his claws extended.

* * *

"Why is that here?!"

A panicked yell echoed down the narrow tunnels. Fast footsteps beat down on the stony ground as Satan ran back the the direction he had came from in a flustered frenzy.

He turned his head slightly and gave a whimper as he realised that from the increasing volume of the growling, whatever was chasing him was still behind him.

The thing chasing him was an enormous pasty muscular white demon. The only thing breaking the whiteness of its skin were blood red lines on its body. In the centre of its large forehead was a single diagram of a crimson eye.

"Why is the one eyed tattooed demon here?! How the hell did it even fit in here in the first place?!"

The passages of this maze was barely large enough to accommodate the typical average sized tattooed demon. Despite that, the massive beast was dashing through the narrow passageways with great agility.

 _Oh man, if I run back to the entrance, it's gonna be so dumb!_

Satan was sweating profusely, he was gasping for air and his heart was beating so hard, he thought it might burst out of his chest. But running away was going to bring him further away from the goal.

Satan slid to a stop and turned to face the tattooed demon. It was still running towards him.

"I can beat this..I can beat this…" Satan muttered to himself nervously as he kept the grip on the sword. He kept his eyes on the charging white demon.

"Run run run. Run away...it's good to run away."

 _Who's saying that?!_

A soft voice was saying those words, almost like it was singing a song.

"Run run run. Run away little demon."

The voice was getting closer but where was it coming from?. Satan could not afford to look somewhere else. The tattooed demon will reach his blade soon.

 _Please, just a few more steps...I can do this…_

Satan held his breath and his gaze steady.

A loud thundering roar was suddenly heard.

"SATAN!"

* * *

 _I still can't see a damned thing!_

Lucifer made an annoyed clicking sound with his tongue as he used his magic to light up a path before him. The magic orbs he made barely illuminated the area around them due to their small size. However, if he made them any larger, he might firstly, attract enemies and secondly, make him feel warmer than he already did.

 _This is so annoying…Do they really have to make everything so troublesome?_

Lucifer continued walking, pausing occasionally to check if there was anyone near him.

 _Nope, nothing. What if there's no exit and they planned to trap us here forever?_

Lucifer had considered just using his heat magic to blast a straight path through but he was worried that if he did such a reckless thing, Malacoda might harm or even kill all their troops. Well, honestly speaking, he was not that concerned about the death of the entire army but he was not keen to give someone a chance to just wipe out Satan's hard work in a snap.

Then, at that moment, Lucifer caught sight of a shadow standing in the darkness.

"?"

Lucifer instinctively backed up when he saw a person in front of him. As the tunnels were still fairly dark, he could not make out the person's features but at least he could tell that the unknown being was not very large, just a head taller than he himself was.

Lucifer's magic orb went closer to the person and the person turned.

It was a man. The man had sharp features, high cheekbones and a face that looked slightly gaunt from fatigue. He looked straight at Lucifer with blood red irises. The man also had messy silver hair tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and on his back was….

A pair of large white wings.

"Who….are you?" Lucifer asked. As he said that, his voice was shaking.

The other person walked towards him, speaking in a familiar voice, a nostalgic voice he had not heard in a long time.

"Hey, Lucifer, how are you?" The person's face was finally illuminated by the small purple orb that Lucifer had in front of him to light up the dark passageway.

"How. ..you can't. ..be…" Lucifer stammered. He took another step back and felt the hard wall press against his back.

Now the man's face was only inches from his own.

"It's alright….." The man's voice had become soft and weak.

It was not known when the man's appearance had changed, but right now, half of his face was covered in a dark red substance. His entire left arm and sleeve was missing and all that was left there was a bloody stump. Lucifer could not even tell what the original colour of the man's clothes were anymore because it was completely stained with the same dark red substance. His wings were no longer a bright snowy white but carried a red tinge.

Without thinking, Lucifer's hands went over his nose and mouth and he started breathing very hard. Looking at the man's bloodied body was making him feel sick to the stomach.

 _No...this happened before!_

"Lucifer...run away...don't look back…" The man's voice was right next to his ear now.

"Run away... from what?" Lucifer could not help asking. He had not seen anyone or anything else on the way here. He suspected if there was anything at all, they would probably just be a bunch of corpses based on the unbearable stench he had been breathing in since he entered the labyrinth.

It was then Lucifer noticed another figure behind the man. It was a person who was about Lucifer's size. Judging from that person's figure, that person was probably a woman. Like the man, she also had white wings and clothes that were stained in red. The woman was clutching one side of her face with her hand.

Or what was supposed to be a face at least.

That person had no eyes or nose or mouth or any facial features at all, it was just a blank slate. A small black hole opened at where the mouth was supposed to be and that thing started making pained moaning noises.

"Sa...tan….iel…." The faceless figure moaned. The figure then raised a thin arm and pointed at the winged man.

"Sa...tan...iel….die…." A light started forming in the middle of the woman's palm.

"I'm sorry… just run…it's our fault…" The man continued speaking. His voice was so soft Lucifer could barely hear him.

"You're...going...to die. Fa..." Without thinking, those words came out of Lucifer's mouth.

 _What am I saying? This isn't real! This can't be real! They can't be here!_

Lucifer closed his eyes shut and opened them again but the same two people were still in front of him.

"...new puppet…."

 _Who's saying that?_

The voice came from somewhere near him but even after looking around, there was no one but those two people. The glow from the woman's hand was so bright it was half-blinding him.

"...die, little demon…."

"?"

Lucifer felt something sharp sliding across his neck. However just at the moment he registered the pain,"something" appeared in front of him for a split second. Although it was only a glimpse, he caught sight of two blood red diamond markings above a grotesque smile. But as quickly as he saw it, the same "something" disappeared from his line of sight with a bone crunching slam. At that moment, the two winged people vanished as well.

Lucifer squeezed his eyes shut involuntarily when the deafening thud rang in his ears. When he opened them a little after the sound died down, he saw…

"Alsiel?!"

The clan leader of the Iron Scorpions.

Alsiel was standing less than a metre away from him and he was breathing deeply as though he had just sprinted a fairly significant distance. His right claw was on the wall and under the dim purple light from Lucifer's magic orb, Lucifer could make out a smashed, probably used to spherical object right under the claw. Hanging from the spherical object was a limp body complete with intact limbs. With spherical object being in the centre, a large spray of blood had coated the wall as well as Alsiel's claws.

Alsiel removed his claw from the wall, as he did so, the lifeless blood covered body fell to the floor. The armoured demon stared distastefully at the corpse and shook his hand to get rid of the blood. Then he turned his head and looked at Lucifer for a few seconds before sighing.

"I guess you got hit by an illusion as well."

"... Oh…." Lucifer replied simply. Although it was probably and most logically only an illusion, the terror he felt was real. As the stinging pain on his neck became more noticeable as he calmed down, he placed a hand on his neck and felt something wet. Pulling his hand away from his neck, he looked at his hand and realised that there was blood on it. Lucifer felt a chill run down his spine as he realised how close he came to getting a major artery cut open. Wiping the blood on his coat, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself further.

"Well, tha….anks?" Lucifer was about to do the decent thing of thanking the armored demon from preventing him from getting h8s neck sliced open but before he could get the words out, Alsiel had grabbed his upper arm and was dragging him forward.

"No time to talk. There's other things lurking around." Alsiel said shortly.

"What other…?" Lucifer tried to ask what Alsiel meant and then his answer came quickly. A disgusting and overwhelming stench hit his nose and as he turned around, he realised that there were some things moving behind them.

Behind them were some demons with missing limbs, no even worse, one of them was even missing a head and it was still moving. Those that were legless dragged themselves along the ground with their arms. As they dragged themselves on the rough ground, parts of their rotting flesh got scraped off, revealing yellowish bones that made a rattling sound as they came into contact with the rocky surface.

"I hate necromancy so much…." Lucifer grumbled as he summoned multiple heat orbs between themselves and the moving corpses.

* * *

Satan looked down at the fallen demon he just impaled with his ice sword. It was one of the Malebranches, the one with a dog like face. Its tongue had rolled out of its open jaw and it seemed almost comical, in Satan's opinion, for it to be lying in such a ridiculous position.

"Illusions huh? Yeah, that would make sense. There's no way a tattooed demon would conveniently fit easily in here now that I think about it."

Satan scratched his head sheepishly. Then turning to the comrade who had shouted at him, causing the illusion to disappear, Satan asked with a wry smile,

"Are you alright, Adramelech? You seem pretty uncomfortable."

"I AM uncomfortable." The large demon grunted. His back was hunched over because it he stood up straight, his horns would probably hit the ceiling. And he also kept his shoulders squeezed together so that he could move without scraping his skin against the walls.

"Aren't you affected?" Satan asked curiously.

"Hmm. Not really. I saw the cave collapsing but when I realised that nothing was hitting me, I figured that it had to be magic." Adramelech replied while shrugged his shoulders. As he felt them touch the wall again, he let out a groan of annoyance.

"I wonder if those illusions are our worst fears or just a highly memorable memory." Satan tried to think of how the Malebranches were able to attack their mind like that.

"Ah, nevermind. Once we get to Malacoda, we can ask him. We can't afford to dawdle."

There was no time thinking so much about it. It was not as though Satan himself specialised in mind manipulating magic. So with Adramelech following him slowly while grumbling about the size of the place, they continued moving forward.

"I wonder how the rest are doing." Satan wondered out loud.

"I'm sure they're fine. If I find that Malacoda, I'm going to let him have a taste of Longinius for making us go through this." Adramelech said angrily.

"That sounds like a fin….Wait, stop." Satan held his hand up and Adramelech stopped walking. Satan stared and the darkness and listened carefully. In the silence of the tunnels, the only sound that stood out was Adramelech's heavy breathing however he was sure he heard footsteps.

"Is there someone up front?"

"I think so. Oh, you can hear it too, so I guess it's not an illusion." Satan held his sword in front of him.

"It better be someone we know…" Adramelech also tried his best to get his spear at a ready position but he started cursing when he accidentally stood up straight and the back of his head hit the ceiling.

"No point being quiet now." Satan walked forward towards the sound. Adramelech followed behind.

The small fireball that Satan summoned revealed the ones who were causing the noise. Once Satan saw clearly what those things were, he breathed in sharply.

"That...bastard…." Satan bared his fangs and started growling.

Right before the both of them were demons that are of a medium size. Those demons, like Satan, had hooves for feet, black bat-like wings on their back and curled horns upon their head. The clothing that they were wearing were torn and weathered. Underneath those torn clothing, one could see the pale yellow bones and falling flesh. They looked at Satan and Adramelech, their eyes glassy and unfocused.

"They..are from the Black Goat clan…"

"He dares to reanimate my clansmen's bodies?! I am going to kill him!" Satan snarled.

The dead demons have started moving towards them in a rigid manner. As they came nearer to Satan, they raised their arms and started making grabbing motions. It was unlikely that such a thing would cause any harm to Satan but the number of them was large enough to block their way.

Adramelech tried to attack the reanimated corpses but he barely did much as he could not exert any strength in the cramped place.

"Satan!" Adramelech called Satan's name. If his leader was just going to stand there, they were just going to be trapped here, waiting for Malacoda's next attack.

"I know!"

"You have to get rid of them!"

"I KNOW, DAMN IT!" With a furious roar, Satan raised his ice sword and started hitting the corpses before him. He threw body after body against the wall, opening a path for himself but they continued intercepting his moments.

"GWARRHHH!"

Satan raised his claw and the fireball he had summoned earlier grew larger and then, it engulfed all the corpses. As the bodies of his former clan members caught fire, they dropped like puppets that had gotten their strings cut. Soon, only the ashes and bones were left.

"..."

Even though Satan knew that those demons were long dead but as the flames burned, he could almost hear them screaming in anguish. Soon the flames died down and Satan looked down at the bones, gritting his teeth. Moments of silence passed and Adramelech studied the younger demon's expression.

"That's the only thing that could be done." Adramelech finally commented, sounding sympathetic.

"I am going to kill him." Satan repeated, this time, rather than anger, the emotion that could be felt was sadness. The ice sword he was holding in his hand held melted from the high temperature of the flames.

"Then we will have to find him first."

"Yeah."

Satan opened his hand and tried to make another ice sword again. Because of this and the incident with the reanimated corpses of the extinct Black Goat clan, Satan was momentarily distracted and he did not notice something coming close to him.

"Heee…."

The voice came from above Satan's head

"?"

Satan looked up and saw a crimson red face staring down at him. It was the red faced demon from the Malebranche group. It was using its long claws to latch itself to the ceiling of the labyrinth.

"GAH!"

With a mad grin, the demon pounched on Satan, its long claws wrapping around Satan's head.

"Satan!"

Adramelech shouted. He struggled to move his upper body to grab the red faced demon but the tight space interfered with his movements. Satan himself grabbed the body of the demon and tried to pull the demon off from himself. As he did that, he felt the red faced demon's claws digging into this skin, drawing blood.

"Get off me!"

The red faced demon looked at Satan in the face and then it opened its jaws.

"!"

Satan's eyes widened in horror as the jaws closed over his head.

* * *

 _Again?!_

Alsiel spun around the umpteenth time to look at the winged demon who was moving slowly behind him. Everytime he heard the footsteps getting worryingly softer, Alsiel would turn, stop, made sure Lucifer caught up and then continue walking again.

"I know you can easily burn those corpses to crisp but this isn't the time to slow down." Alsiel said, arms crossed to express his frustration.

"Sure…" Lucifer muttered in an exhausted manner.

"Are you not used to walking? Or are my strides just too long?"

The other party did not verbally reply to the implied insult. He just glanced at the armored demon and rolled his eyes.

"Don't tell me you are still seeing illusions?" Alsiel asked. He had seen Lucifer stop and start looking in other directions where there was nothing to be seen.

"Just a bit. But they're not as vivid as just now. As long as you keep talking, it'll be fine."

Alsiel continued observing Lucifer. It was not a simple case of being distracted by illusions or having to walk a long distance. In fact, it looked as though Lucifer might drop off to sleep at any moment.

 _Don't tell me it's exhaustion from losing too much magic?_

Alsiel was aware that demons when feel fear, they would lose the magic that was stored within them. As for the stronger demons, the stronger ones would absorb magic from their surroundings. This was why in this world, it became a basic concept that if you can create the most fear, if you were the most tyrannical demon causing everything under you to quaver in terror, you would be the strongest demon.

Although Alsiel could not see the illusion that Lucifer experienced, he had a feeling it was probably something that terrorised Lucifer tremendously.

"Are you losing magic?" Alsiel finally asked, trying to confirm his suspicions.

"Huh….oh right. Probably. But it's not just that…." Lucifer replied.

"?"

"I had to give quite a lot of my magic to Camio for insurance." Lucifer said.

Alsiel looked back in surprise at the unexpected answer and asked,

"Insurance?"

"The Malebranches aren't going to play fair. It's the only way we could come up with to make sure that someone can protect Satan from any surprise attacks." Lucifer explained.

Alsiel was still unsure about what Lucifer meant but he ceased his questioning as a junction appeared before them.

"Haven't saw those for a while…"Alsiel commented.

"...I'll go left, you take the other way." Lucifer said.

"Why?"

"So we can find that damn Malacoda faster and end this stupid thing." As Lucifer said that, he made his way to the left path. However, instead of going right, Alsiel was following him. Lucifer turned around and glared at Alsiel.

"Do you not understand directions?!" Lucifer said in annoyance.

"Yes. I do understand what you mean. But with you in a weakened state like that, you'll probably get killed sooner or later. Sometimes it's better to have an extra pair of eyes." Alsiel replied calmly.

"...Fine…." Lucifer shrugged his shoulders and gave up. He was too tired to argue against that.

* * *

Before the jaws of the red faced demon clamped down, Satan caught a glimpse of large black feathers and the next moment, a spray of blood shot out from the red demon. Its grip loosened around Satan's head and it fell on the ground dead. Only then, did Satan realise that the red demon's head was taken off.

"Ca...Camio?"

In front of him was the bird demon who had accompanied him for decades. Camio was holding a dagger in his right claw and in his left, the red demon's head. Camio threw the head on the ground roughly and it rolled a distance before stopping.

"Camio? Wh...where are your clothes?" It was Adramelech who asked.

Camio usually wore some large robes and he almost always had a sword tied to his belt but this time he only had a loin cloth and his only weapon was a small dagger that was barely larger than his own claw.

"Unfortunately, when I shrink, my clothes do not shrink with me." Camio replied.

"Shrink...why do you have to shrink?!" Satan was grateful that Camio's sudden appearance saved him but he was utterly confused by the entire situation.

"I had to shrink so the Malebranches wouldn't notice when snuck out of my own entrance to enter the tunnel you went to. Who knows what the Malebranches would throw at us. It's better if someone kept an eye on you." Camio explained then he lifted his head to look at Adramelech who was still in an uncomfortably hunched position.

"Ah...it's lucky I was here…"

"It's not my fault this place is so small." Adramelech grumbled again.

"But you need magic to get back to normal size right?" Satan understood that Camio probably drained his own magic after entering the cave to shrink to a sufficiently undetectable size. But to get back to a normal size so quickly, he would have required to absorb quite a significant amount of magic.

"Lucifer crystallised his magic for me to use."

"Crystallise...oh right. I didn't think of that." Satan said as though he just realised something.

The crystallisation of magic was something very basic that most demons should be able to do but one could consider it a lost art. Not many had seen the purpose of making magic into a solid form unless they want to use it to make a weapon or to make some form of protective addition, making their magic into a solid form for the purpose of bestowing it to someone else was almost like a foreign concept for most demons who live by the philosophy of "every demon for himself".

"We better get to Malacoda quickly." Camio said. Satan and Adramelech nodded.

* * *

"He's unexpectedly hardy."

Right now, a demon with curly wisps of hair on his square chin was stumbling about, dizzy by the sudden assault he received. The poor demon had been following Alsiel and Lucifer, waiting for the right opportunity to attack. However, when he tried to attack Alsiel from behind, he was noticed and promptly received a backhand from the armored demon and followed by a kick in the gut from Lucifer.

"Alright, time to finish him off."

Purple orbs started surrounding the demon.

"Lucifer, wait." Alsiel suddenly said, holding his hand in front of Lucifer.

"What...I'm not in a good mood right now, let me vent a bit."

"Keep him alive, it would be more beneficial for us."

* * *

Malacoda stood near the exit of the entire labyrinth, waiting for his comrades to return with the head of the young demon, Satan Jacob. He was confident of his victory since so many have fell for his trap and ended up becoming puppets for him to control.

"It's so much easier getting puppets like this than having to scavenge for them."

Yes, it would be anytime now.

Or so he thought.

"Yo."

A bright red fireball appeared first and behind it were three demons. The young demon from the extinct Black Goat clan, the leader of the weak Pahalo Danino clan and the leader of the Ashen Horns.

"As expected, someone like you would rather stay at the exit rather than playing normally."

Satan spoke with a wide evil grin on his face.

"Ho...how...how…" Malacoda stared at the three demons, completely flabbergasted by the outcome.

"Well, as long as we finished off your comrades, the illusions stopped. Yeah, the corpses were a bit more troublesome but nothing like some fire magic to see them off properly. It did take some time to find this place and I can tell you, I'm very tired right now."

Satan continued speaking while twirling his ice sword in a casual manner.

"So all that's left is to take your head, I suppose?"

Malacoda spun quickly and went straight to the exit but he was stopped by an unknown force. A faint green glow had enveloped him.

"Ah, so this guy really led us the right way."

A young sounding voice was heard.

Malacoda turned his head in the direction of the voice and he saw Alsiel. Next to him was Lucifer and in front the both of them was a demon that was slightly shorter than Alsiel, had long sharp claws and a characteristic square jaw with hairs sprouting out of it.

"Bar...Barbariccia?!"

The demon called Barbariccia started speaking very quickly in terror.

"I'm sorry, Lord Malacoda, they would kill me if I didn't listen to them!"

Malacoda was speechless.

"Oh, Alsiel, Lucifer, glad to see that both of you are alright!" Satan said cheerfully.

"I admit my loss! I admit my loss!" Malacoda said, trying to sound as humble as he could.

"Nope. You stated your conditions for the end game!" With that, Satan grabbed Malacoda's head. Almost in great coordination, Alsiel released his hold on Malacoda and Satan ran out of the exit with his hand still holding onto the bony skull. Malacoda gave an ear piercing screech as he was dragged across the rocky ground before being unceremoniously pinned down by Satan as he came to a stop.

"Lord Malacoda!" Barbariccia let out a cry of terror once he witnessed his leader being treated in such a humiliating manner.

"Shut it, will you?"

Barbariccia immediately kept his mouth tightly closed as purple orbs appeared in front of him again.

As he kept Malacoda pinned down, Satan pointed his ice sword at Malacoda's neck but before he could do anything, the leader of the Malebranches started talking very loudly in a panicked manner.

"Wait, wait. Don't kill me! How about this, I will join your army! I'll let you take command of my entire clan!"

Malacoda tried to make a tempting offer. The Malebranche clan was an extremely huge group. If they served Satan, it would largely boost the power of his army.

"I can take your clan and kill you. You done many things to piss me off, I see no reason in letting you keep your life." Satan snarled in a threatening tone as he thought back of the dead members of his clan that appeared in the maze.

"No, no! I'll serve you as well! I'll pledge my loyalty to you! I'll even release your troops now!"

"..."

Satan looked at Malacoda coldly.

"Satan. Let him off." Someone put a hand on Satan's shoulder.

"Camio…"

"What do you gain from killing him off? Nothing but self satisfaction. However, if he joins us, he may serve to be a useful ally."

"..."

Then Adramelech added on.

"If he tries to betray us, I will finish him off myself."

"... Fine."

Reluctantly, Satan stood up and stepped away from Malacoda. Malacoda got up from the ground quickly and just as he had promised, he freed Satan's troops. Though they were quite far away, Satan could make out the faint shadow of the dragons of his army flying back into the air once Malacoda undid his spell.

"So now Malacoda and his clan are part of our army as well." Satan said as he looked to his four comrades for affirmation. Camio nodded as did Adramelech. Alsiel seemed to eye Malacoda suspiciously for a few seconds but nodded as well. Lucifer just shrugged as though to show that he did not care about the decision that Satan made.

"Thank you for your mercy, Lord Satan! Just give your orders and we, the Malabranches, will follow." Malacoda said and bowed as low as he could.

"Quick to suck up, aren't you?" Satan said disapprovingly. However, he still gave his command.

"Fill the entire maze with wood and straw. I want that place to be burnt down."

"Ah…" Malacoda was about to protest. That labyrinth was one of his well thought out traps to get corpses to use after all. However, a glare from Satan made him decide that it was wiser to follow. He asked Barbaricca to call the other Malebranches to help.

A few hours later, the entire underground structure was burnt. After that, all the entrances and exits were sealed up with stones, soil and dirt. This labyrinth was never used again and served as a burial ground to the demons that were inside.

The army continued their journey to the Ancient Demon capital.

Soon the outline of the fortress built by the Ancient Demon King centuries ago could be seen. In a short while, they would reach Satanasarc. From there the story of a young Demon King ruling the crimson world, invading Ente Isla before being defeated by the Hero and drifting to a foreign world would begin. Of course, that was something than would occur more than two hundred years later.

* * *

 **Moko-chan** : Just some explanation on the basis of this story.

The Malebranches were based off the literary work Divine Comedy. So the Malebranche members that appeared are, Malacoda (Evil tail), Barbaricca (curly beard) - survives, threatened by Alsiel and Lucifer, Alichino (harlequin) - Attacked Lucifer, killed by Alsiel, Rubincante (red faced terror) - Attacked Satan, Killed by Camio and Cagnazzo (nasty dog) - killed by Satan.

In HataMaou-verse, the Malabranches were a group of demons that specialise in Necromancy and Illusion magic (Refer to vol 8. Lucifer talks to Chiho about this) Some members of the clan can even control the weather. (done by Libicocco in vol 8.) Only the top members like Malacoda and the chieftains under him use magic. The lower ranked ones stick to physical attacks.

The illusions were actually replays of their most memorable (in some cases, worst) memories.

Well, if you haven't read the vol 15 spoilers/ read vol 15 itself, you might be a bit confused about Lucifer's illusion. Hahaha…..Just go on Gonfier's tumblr and check it out yourself. I also kinda mentioned something related to this in my other fic "If I could turn back time"

In vol 0, Satan never explicitly said that he wanted the Malebranches in his army. He just pointed out that they happened to be on their path to Satanasarc.

For Satan's bad memory, please refer to chapter 2 of my other fanfic "Reason"

Wait...the Black Goat clan have been extinct for decades, why are their corpses still more or less intact…*whistles innocently* preservation...Dry weather...I dunno.

Satan named himself and the other four as "kings" so that their position would be equal. Only after Malacoda joined, do we get the four demon generals with Alsiel taking charge and Satan being King. (This part will be mentioned in Vol 0)

 **pika318:** This must be the longest fic Moko-chan ever written. I loved everything about it. If the notes above still have not answered any of the questions some of you might have about the premise, feel free to drop a review.


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